How to Make Pinata People

A children's party can be brought to life with a homemade Pinata. (Image: it's birthday (8) party time 1 image by mdb from Fotolia.com)

Making a Pinata person will take some preparation, time and effort but it will be worth it for the joy it brings on the day of your child's party. The materials required to make the Pinata are inexpensive and will include many things you have around the house. Allow at least four days to make the Pinata as it has to be made in stages and each stage needs time to dry. To make it more enjoyable, get your child to help as he will love getting messy and making something with you.

Things You'll Need

Balloons of different shapes and sizes

Flour

Water

Old newspaper

Paint of different colors

Tapestry needle

Wool (or other strong thread)

Old clothes or material

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How to Make a Pinata Person

Mix together two parts water and one part flour to make a paper-mache paste. How much you make depends on how big you want your finished Pinata to be. Put this mixture in a big bowl so you have lots of room for dipping your newspaper.

Add two parts water to one part flour to make paper-mache (Image: water jug image by Wayne Abraham from Fotolia.com)

Tear strips of old newspaper about one inch wide and six inches long. Create lots of these; remember you are making a whole person.

Raid the recycling box and reuse your old newspapers. (Image: old newspapers image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com)

Blow up a round or oval shaped balloon for the head. Blow up two long sausage-shaped balloons for each arm and four long sausage-shaped balloons for the legs. For the body use either a really large round or oval shaped balloon (preferably bigger than the head) or two large round balloons that you can attach together.

Different-sized balloons will make the body parts of your Pinata (Image: Heap of Balloons image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com)

Dip your newspaper strips into the paper-mache mix and place them over the balloons. Smooth them down and make sure the balloon is completely covered. Cover all your balloons this way.

Leave the balloons to dry for 24 hours and then repeat the last step. Cover all the balloons again with the paper-mache mix. Again, leave this for 24 hours and repeat, so you have three layers total of paper-mache covering your balloons.

Cover your balloons with three layers of paper-mache to make a strong Pinata. (Image: Balloons image by Vanessa van Rensburg from Fotolia.com)

Make a small hole with a needle in each covered balloon (when they are completely dry) to pop the balloon inside the paper-mache. Now you can sew together the arms, legs and head onto the body. Use a tapestry needle (these are quite big and easy to thread) with wool or other fairly strong thread.

Sew together all your body parts. (Image: needle and thread image by Nikolay Okhitin from Fotolia.com)

Cut a small flap into each section that you would like to fill with sweets. Do not fill with sweets just yet as you need to decorate the Pinata person. At this point you can remove the popped balloon from inside each section.

Cut a small flap into each body part to create holes to place your sweets in. (Image: cutting of a fabric image by Podfoto from Fotolia.com)

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Paint the Pinata in the colors that you would like him or her to be. For example; you could paint him or her a skin color and then paint on eyes, nose and mouth. Leave this to dry before going to the next step.

Paint on the skin color of your choosing and then paint on the facial features. (Image: graffiti image by sophie berclaz from Fotolia.com)

Fill the Pinata with the sweets using the holes you cut. Fill each section and then sew the flaps.

Fill your Pinata with sweets and sew up before adding clothes to the figure. (Image: sweets and hand image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com)

Get some old clothes or material and dress the Pinata any way you choose. At this point you might like to add hair. This could be an old wig or wool stuck directly onto the head.

An old wig could make great hair for your Pinata person. (Image: beautiful model with green wig and orange make-up image by David Levinson from Fotolia.com)

Add any final touches such as glitter, decorations or a hat. Complete the Pinata by sewing a loop of fishing line or strong thread to hang up your Pinata.

Use strong thread to sew in a loop for hanging your Pinata. (Image: yarn 3 image by Jeffrey Sinnock from Fotolia.com)

Tips & Warnings

Get your child/children to help.

Recycle things that you have in the house; such as newspaper, material or clothes.

Use a large bowl (at least 10 inches wide) to make your paper-mache.

Cover your bowl with clingfilm and the mixture will keep till the next day.

Do not use any dangerous materials in your Pinata, soft fabrics and painted eyes will be safer for children.